David Guetta

Casual clubbers are forgiven in advance if they think they have been magically transported to Paris' Bastille district this weekend. EU passport holders will be out en masse Saturday as Hollywood's two largest nightclubs host French DJs -- Laurent Garnier headlines the Avalon while just a few blocks away, David Guetta holds forth at Vanguard. It's not just this weekend that French DJs are descending upon Los Angeles, either.

Talent agency Paradigm is expanding its reach into Europe through a joint venture with the London-based CODA Music Agency, the companies said Tuesday. The deal gives Paradigm a 50% stake in CODA, which represents 500 artists and DJs including Imagine Dragons, Bastille and the XX. CODA will continue to operate as a stand-alone company and keep its headquarters and management team, but additional financial details were not disclosed. With this transaction, Paradigm can represent its roster of music artists - which include Aerosmith, Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay and Toby Keith - in European countries.

Like Wile E. Coyote realizing too late that he's walked off a cliff and is standing on thin air, "Britney Jean," the new studio album from Britney Spears, is marked with so many sleights of hand, dubious lyrics and bombastic but boringly simple melodies that the too-rare levitation of its better moments seems an animation trick. Item one: "It Should Be Easy," a song that practically wallows in its own failure. Featuring a cameo by the album's executive producer, will.i.am, the track casts doubt on his utility, as evidenced by these lazy lines: "Love, it should be easy / It shouldn't be complicated / It should be easy.

While most of the EDM establishment is cavorting at Winter Music Conference in Miami, some of the genre's biggest names will head to L.A. for Beyond Wonderland, one of Insomniac's bigger annual events. Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello, Afrojack, pop titan David Guetta and rising acts such as Maya Jane Coles, Art Department, Damian Lazarus, Arty and Rebecca & Fiona top a pretty thorough bill of contemporary EDM. San Manuel Amphitheater, 2575 Glen Helen Parkway, San Bernardino. 4 p.m. Sat. $75-$150.

MUSIC Over nine albums, Ryan Raddon's alias Kaskade has shifted from orthodox house- and trance-inspired tracks into blown-out populist anthems rooted in melody and sultry chorus hooks, often performed by female guest vocalists. Other producers like David Guetta have introduced dance sounds and structures into Top 40 pop, but Kaskade's latest double-album set "Fire & Ice" proved his potential to take the genre to mainstream listeners without changing its fundamental aesthetics. Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Fri., $20-$65.

Last week's Tomorrowland festival in Boom, Belgium, is notable for more than being the biggest electronic dance music festival in the world. It has also always been one of the festivals friendliest to female DJs, in a genre that has been a boys club for as long as there have been two turntables and a microphone, and this year that was more apparent than ever, with 19 female acts appearing. Two of the hottest duos on the EDM circuit -- Sweden's Rebecca Scheja and her partner-in-crime, Fiona Fitzpatrick, who together form the flashy tandem Rebecca & Fiona, along with Australia's twin-sister sensation, Miriam and Olivia Nervo, or simply NERVO (in caps)

Kelis has taken up a new sound. Again. Three years after going EDM on her album "Flesh Tone" (which included collaborations with David Guetta and Boys Noize, among others), the shape-shifting singer announced that she's completed its follow-up, titled "Food" and due out in September, according to Pitchfork . Kelis, who broke out in the late '90s and early '00s with a series of adventurous R&B singles produced by the Neptunes, recorded the new disc with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio.

Warner Music Group Corp. has tapped Bart Cools to lead its electronic dance music strategy as it pushes to take advantage of the growing EDM genre. Cools, a key architect of EDM star David Guetta's dramatic rise, will hold the newly created position of executive vice president for global A&R and marketing for dance music at Warner Recorded Music. Cools, who will report to Atlantic Records Chairman and Chief Executive Craig Kallman, came to Warner when the record company closed its acquisition of Parlophone Label Group from Universal Music Group in July.

A 30-plus-minute recap of Tomorrowland, a popular electronic music festival in Belgium, is garnering notice on YouTube. The highly produced video that features vignettes from the live music performance with popular tracks, inclulding Avicci's "Wake Me Up" and Martin Garrix's "Animalsaas" has attracted more than 2 million views, making it one of the top four trending videos on YouTube on Thursday morning. The Tomorrowland video serves to promote the upcoming TomorrowWorld concert Sept.

Kelis has taken up a new sound. Again. Three years after going EDM on her album "Flesh Tone" (which included collaborations with David Guetta and Boys Noize, among others), the shape-shifting singer announced that she's completed its follow-up, titled "Food" and due out in September, according to Pitchfork . Kelis, who broke out in the late '90s and early '00s with a series of adventurous R&B singles produced by the Neptunes, recorded the new disc with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio.

While most of the EDM establishment is cavorting at Winter Music Conference in Miami, some of the genre's biggest names will head to L.A. for Beyond Wonderland, one of Insomniac's bigger annual events. Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello, Afrojack, pop titan David Guetta and rising acts such as Maya Jane Coles, Art Department, Damian Lazarus, Arty and Rebecca & Fiona top a pretty thorough bill of contemporary EDM. San Manuel Amphitheater, 2575 Glen Helen Parkway, San Bernardino. 4 p.m. Sat. $75-$150.

Those looking for further evidence that electronic dance music has consolidated its power on the Las Vegas Strip need look no further than Monday's announcement of 2013 residencies at the Wynn Las Vegas. A veritable feast of electronic dance music producers and DJs will appear at the upscale casino's clubs Surrender, Tryst, XS and Encore Beach Club, including Bassnectar, Skrillex, Diplo, Nero, AVICII, David Guetta, will.i.am, Afrojack, Rusko and Madeon, among dozens of others. Wynn's stacked roster shows continued commitment by the casino to lure a fast-living, big-spending all-night dance crowd, the kind that made hot spots out of Ibiza, Berlin and Miami. But it's not just at the Wynn, of course.

Outside the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday, just before the Swedish producer/DJ Aviciiperformed the first of his three concerts this weekend, a guy passed out on the lawn. The fellow looked to be in his mid-20s, buffed with protein-supplement shakes and so annihilated that he flitted around the front yard like a little fratty hummingbird searching for sugar water (or tequila). Three police officers chased him before he finally collapsed in a leaden pile right in front of several thousand people waiting in the ticketing line. This obviously had nothing to do with Avicii or the venue (which wasn't even serving alcohol - go figure)

Warner Music Group Corp. has tapped Bart Cools to lead its electronic dance music strategy as it pushes to take advantage of the growing EDM genre. Cools, a key architect of EDM star David Guetta's dramatic rise, will hold the newly created position of executive vice president for global A&R and marketing for dance music at Warner Recorded Music. Cools, who will report to Atlantic Records Chairman and Chief Executive Craig Kallman, came to Warner when the record company closed its acquisition of Parlophone Label Group from Universal Music Group in July.

A 30-plus-minute recap of Tomorrowland, a popular electronic music festival in Belgium, is garnering notice on YouTube. The highly produced video that features vignettes from the live music performance with popular tracks, inclulding Avicci's "Wake Me Up" and Martin Garrix's "Animalsaas" has attracted more than 2 million views, making it one of the top four trending videos on YouTube on Thursday morning. The Tomorrowland video serves to promote the upcoming TomorrowWorld concert Sept.

Last week's Tomorrowland festival in Boom, Belgium, is notable for more than being the biggest electronic dance music festival in the world. It has also always been one of the festivals friendliest to female DJs, in a genre that has been a boys club for as long as there have been two turntables and a microphone, and this year that was more apparent than ever, with 19 female acts appearing. Two of the hottest duos on the EDM circuit -- Sweden's Rebecca Scheja and her partner-in-crime, Fiona Fitzpatrick, who together form the flashy tandem Rebecca & Fiona, along with Australia's twin-sister sensation, Miriam and Olivia Nervo, or simply NERVO (in caps)

MUSIC Over nine albums, Ryan Raddon's alias Kaskade has shifted from orthodox house- and trance-inspired tracks into blown-out populist anthems rooted in melody and sultry chorus hooks, often performed by female guest vocalists. Other producers like David Guetta have introduced dance sounds and structures into Top 40 pop, but Kaskade's latest double-album set "Fire & Ice" proved his potential to take the genre to mainstream listeners without changing its fundamental aesthetics. Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Fri., $20-$65.